At Split Bread sandwich shop, cash is not king

San Francisco’s first cashless restaurant plans to open its doors next month.

Split Bread, a new fast-casual sandwich restaurant conceived by Andrew Swallow and David Silverglide, the team behind popular salad chain Mixt Greens, will test the uncharted waters of a cash-free retail business and pioneer new mobile payment technology.

The restaurant is San Francisco’s first to use a completely cashless model.

Under the scheme, Split Bread’s customers will be able to place their orders in one of three ways: online, on a smartphone and in the store at a kiosk. With all the methods, the goal is efficiency for both customers and restaurant.

“People forget that there are costs associated with cash in a high-volume business,” said Silverglide, Split Bread’s founder and CEO. “We want to create as frictionless a transaction as possible.”

Ideally, orders made online will be ready for pickup when the customer comes to the restaurant. In store, patrons can swipe their credit cards at one of the butcher-block podiums, which will be staffed with helpful employees for the not-so-tech-savvy, or scan a QR code on their phone to order and pay while sitting at their table.

The food will then be delivered directly to the customer’s table. No cashiers have to count change, and no money is ever unaccounted for.

With all the uproar over swipe and interchange fees that retailers have to pay when customers use their credit cards, Swallow and Silverglide faced a lot of questions over the viability of a cashless restaurant model.

In response, Silverglide pointed to the success of airlines’ cash-free model for buying in-flight food. Of course, travelers don’t have much of an option, and the move did cause some pushback.

Still, Silverglide believes the model will be cheaper and more efficient. Plus, approximately 70 percent of all transactions are already made with credit cards at Mixt Greens, he said.

“I think there will be a big shift in this direction over time, especially as more people will be able to pay with their smartphones,” he said. Levine added that he has seen a shift from 30 percent of all restaurant transactions being cash a decade ago down to 10 percent today.

Consultant David Preuss, principal at PSL Marketing Resources, on the other hand, said the move could be risky.

“If it’s not an upscale restaurant, there is a higher propensity to pay with cash,” he explained. However, he said that the financial savings might be worth the risk.

Commerce, an upscale restaurant in New York City, was one of the first in the country to switch to a cashless model in 2009 — and it’s still doing good business.

“We’ve been doing it for three years, and I’m very happy with our decision,” said owner Tony Zazula. “People were both outraged and intrigued, but we have no intention of going back to cash.”

Zazula has plans to open his own cashless fast-casual restaurant soon.

Split Bread is slated to open August 7 at the front entrance of the Metreon at 145 4th St. The restaurant will be open seven days a week for both lunch and dinner, as Silverglide expects it to become a destination on nights and weekends as well as for the daytime lunch crowd.

Right now it’s unclear if the owners will be able to introduce the model to their other Mixt Greens restaurants, since the established systems would be difficult to convert. However, if the model succeeds, Silverglide hopes to expand the Split Bread chain — and its technology — nationally within the next several years.

“We’ll be delivering the best sandwiches in town, so I think it’ll be a success,” he said.